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Guatemalan mission trip an “amazing” experience

Members of the mission team of Upper Thames Missionary Church in Mitchell were (back row, left to right): Julianne Judge, Mackenzie Dixon, Kim Van Oostveen, Karyn French, Curtis Eidt, Joan Dixon and Joan Van Herk. Front row (left): Becky Hudson and Mikyla Walker. The group was in Guatemala from Aug. 19-26 working in and around The Arms of Jesus (AOJ) Children’s Mission. SUBMITTED

Two words commonly used during an hour long rehash of a recent seven-day mission trip to Guatemala were “amazing” and “hope.”

Amazing experience, and hope for the future – their future.

Four of nine members of the mission team from Upper Thames Missionary Church (UTMC) in Mitchell that were part of The Arms of Jesus (AOJ) Children’s Mission trip Aug. 19-26 were able to gather last week for a discussion of their experience, and every one not only said they’d go again to the Central American country but next time they’d stay longer.

“I think all of us could have stayed longer. It was just one of those places where you didn’t want to come home yet,” said first-timer Karyn French. “You could have just stayed there and kept giving and giving and giving and you never felt exhausted.”

Others having gone for the first time, Julianne Judge and 16-year-old Mackenzie Dixon - one of three teens on the mission - as well as Mackenzie’s mom Joan, who went in 2010, tried to best sum up their experience. There was the strong feeling that others that went - Becky Hudson and her 16-year-old son Curt Eidt, Kim Van Oostveen, Joan Van Herk and 19-year-old Mikyla Walker - felt much the same.

“I knew we were going to see poverty,” French said. “I guess you don’t really know what to expect, but it’s when you get there it’s when the emotions really hit.

“The fact that the children are so grateful for everything and you have swarms of children hugging you,” she said. “They told us that would happen and that’s exactly what did.”

“The most surprising thing to me was how we were embraced,” said Judge. “To them it’s hope that we’re coming to help. They’re just so willing to receive that help.

“The poverty was a lot greater than I expected it to be, but I didn’t see a person without a smile. It was so easy to connect with them….it was amazing.”

The mission group stayed at a hotel 15-20 minutes away from the school campus of AOJ, which has continued to expand and flourish over the years. After hiking to a volcano on their first day, the group primarily helped out in the school other days by teaching English, phys ed (including the Canadian sport of ringette), “sensitive” subjects such as puberty as well as cooking and first aid.

“Our second day there, the first at the school, as soon as you walked into the multipurpose room, all the kids were singing at the top of their lungs welcoming us. They are all so thankful for what they’ve got,” said French. “I took three steps into that auditorium and the tears were rolling down my face. The hair just stands up on your arms. I think from that moment on all of us were just loving every minute of every day….and they were long days.”

“…and praising God, that was their focus,” added Joan Dixon.

They also visited a special needs school and did a presentation at a nearby dump to hand out food hampers to people who go and scrounge for whatever they can find to sell.

“That was really cool,” said Joan of the dump experience. “When we showed up it was kind of surreal, okay do you really live here or just here for a handout? It’s kind of human nature to question that, but as we were doing our presentation other people who didn’t know we were coming were showing up with their sticks and their wheelbarrows and to the dump they went to scrounge for food. That was probably the lowest point of poverty.”

Some families, mostly women and young children, walked 45-minutes through the mountains to the dump to find whatever they could to sell.

“It was really overwhelming at the beginning and very emotional but I just loved to see how grateful everyone was,” Mackenzie Dixon said. “They were always thanking you and hugging you. Even at the dump when we gave them their food hamper – Mikyla was singing, I was stepdancing and you could see that we had touched them and that’s something they don’t get to see too often. It was amazing.”

Dixon was so touched by the outpouring of love, after a 10-year-old Guatemalan girl danced for the group, she left behind her stepdancing shoes for her.

The group also went to a government-run school with less than ideal conditions for those with special needs. They collectively did some foot washing and thanks to some money they had raised before going, ordered and delivered new shoes and socks.

“We went and sat and washed their feet just like Jesus did in the bible,” French explained.

Added Joan Dixon: “The message that we were giving was we weren’t washing the dirt off their feet, we were washing the feet as Jesus did with his disciples. It was about being humble.”

Prior to departing for home, the group pooled whatever money they had left and donated it to help improve a bathroom at the special needs school. They didn’t think it was much – approximately $280 U.S. - but it turned out to be enough to create two sinks with running water and a stone counter top.

“That just showed us how much we can give and how far it can go,” said Judge.

It’s estimated that 60 per cent of Guatemalans live below the poverty line and the Arms of Jesus have implemented a food distribution program as well as a sponsorship program to better the lives of children in school.

The group raved about the sponsorship program, and urged anyone to look into it further through the AOJ head office in Pickering, with $29.75 of the $35 monthly sponsorship actually going to sponsor a child and provide them with a spot in the school, a food hamper and shoes. In other words, there was minimal administration fees.

Judge, Mackenzie Dixon and Becky Hudson sponsored on site when they arrived while French sponsored two children shortly before she left on the mission and was able to tailor specific needs such as a bed and mattress as well as a table and chairs for each family.

“To see such a low amount of money gives them meals, education and the ability to grow is wonderful,” Judge said, urging anyone to do what they can to help.

“It gives that child, and their family, some hope to break the cycle,” she said.

Joan Dixon sponsored a boy in 2010 when she went on her first mission and that boy, now 12, had dreams of owning a bicycle and she was able to see him with it.

Mackenzie, Hudson and Eidt got the chance to see firsthand the conditions their sponsored children are living in, making it all the more real.

The school itself, which the AOJ began under the leadership of Dr. Sam Martin, has grown so much in the seven years since she last saw it, Dixon noted, that students in Grade 11 are preparing to go to college and study and eventually work in the tourism industry. The 18 suitcases of supplies the mission team brought came in the time of need as supplies were running low. Michael Van Oostveen (nicknamed the “white tiger” in Guatemala), the son of Rev. Ralph and Kim Van Oostveen, has been teaching at the school for the past three years and is fully entrenched in the culture, acting as a translator during their visit.

“That campus honestly it is a little bit of heaven on Earth. A garden of Eden, just like in the Bible, it really is,” said French. “You don’t worry about yourself there. You’re so focused on helping them you don’t worry about what we’ve got going on in your life because our worries we’ve got are so trivial compared to what they have.”